Apollo Education Group Inc (APOL) Expected To Report Lower Earnings

Apollo Education Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) releases its next quarterly earnings report tomorrow. This report will be for the first quarter of the fiscal 2014 year. Analysts are predicting that the company will see about a 26% decline in earnings compared with the same quarter a year ago.

Predicting Apollo’s quarterly results

Zacks estimates indicate that analysts haven’t changed their expectations for Apollo much over the last month. However, they have increased their estimates from three months ago. They’re now expecting Apollo Education Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) to report earnings of 90 cents per share. That’s compared to the three-months-ago estimate of 83 cents and the year-ago result of $1.22 per share.

For the full fiscal year, analysts are expecting to see $2.11 per share in earnings and revenue of $3.04 billion. In quarterly revenue, analysts predict Apollo will report $860.6 million for the most recently completed quarter. That’s compared to $1.06 billion last year, making this year’s projection an 18% year over year decline for the company.

Apollo sees sequential earnings declines

Although Apollo Education Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) has been profitable over the last two years, the company’s net income has fallen over the last four quarters. On average, it has declined 53% year over year. The most recently reported quarter was the quarter which was hit the hardest. Apollo’s struggles are part of a larger trend within the education industry which is also hitting companies like Strayer Education Inc (NASDAQ:STRA). Education companies have simply been dealing with weak demand because of lower enrollment growth as students prefer to remain out of debt rather than further their education.

But in spite of declining earnings, the company did surprise significantly to the positive in the last quarter, beating expectations by about 120%. In fact, Apollo Education Group Inc (NASDAQ:APOL) actually posted positive surprises in each of the last four quarters. The fourth fiscal quarter of 2013 was by far the biggest positive surprise.